1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic thermometer for detecting and visually displaying body temperatures. More particularly, the present invention pertains to a clinical thermometer with one or more advanced user interface features.
2. Description of the Related Art
Multiple types of thermometers exist, including hand-held electronic thermometers and glass-tube mercury thermometers. Glass-tube mercury thermometers have gradated scales colored or etched into the glass tube and once the mercury rises and settles in the glass tube due to the temperature of the patient, a user can read the temperature from the scale, calibrated for degrees Fahrenheit or Centigrade. Glass-tube thermometers have a number of drawbacks, including the difficulty of reading a temperature from the gradated scale based on the mercury level.
As an improvement, hand-held electronic thermometers have been introduced. In a basic electronic thermometer design, a temperature-sensing element is connected to a combined, battery-powered computing and display element. The display element is typically a viewing window provided for the temperature display wherein the temperature is displayed numerically in either degrees Fahrenheit or Centigrade. The display element can include, for example, a multi-segment liquid crystal display (LCD), which are simple to read and can provide a digital readout of the patient's temperature.
However, regardless of the method used to display a patient's temperature, many of the interface features present in current electronic thermometers leave the device crowded, confusing and often difficult to use, presenting results that are difficult to interpret. Additionally, while an electronic thermometer may be easier to read than a glass-tube thermometer, it can still be difficult to read for those with poor vision. Furthermore, those with poor vision may have difficulty pressing buttons or properly aligning features, such as a probe cover. Users also have trouble pushing the button when required or tend to remove or insert the thermometer at the wrong times.
Thus, there remains a need for low cost, easy to read, easy to interpret, visual displays and improved user interface configurations for clinical thermometers.